angry tapir writes: "It has been troubled times for Facebook since the social network's IPO in May. There has been speculation that Facebook could suffer a talent drain in the wake of the IPO, and now the organisation has lost four of its high-level managers the space of a week: Ethan Beard, director of platform partnerships; Kate Mitic, platform marketing director; Jonathan Matus, mobile platform marketing manager; and Ben Blumenfeld, design manager, have all resigned from the company."

Mr. Jaggers writes: "Chris Pope (podcaster from Tech Jives Network and social media guy for the Guys From Andromeda game studio) is being joined by Ellen McLain, the voice actress of GLaDOS from Valve's series of Portal games in an informal live chat on Twich TV right now (12pm PST / 3pm EST, United States time zones). Ellen's other voice work includes the announcer from Team Fortress 2, as well as appearing in the other games in Valve's 2007 Orange Box release (Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two). The chat can be joined via IRC or from the Twitch TV website, and Ellen will be available to fans for questions, including her work with Valve, as well as future projects (including the spiritual-successor to the Space Quest series of adventure games). The podcast of it will be up later on for those that miss the chat, but for those that can join in, it ought to be real treat to be able to ask GLaDOS why she was so mean to us..."

corbinlc writes: "Ask Slashdot: Why not Kickstart Free Software?As covered on slashdot recently, there is a nearly over Kickstarter campaign to bring Octave and gnuplot to Android. I, Corbin Champion, am the developer behind the project and the associated campaign and have a few questions for slashdot readers. I will ask a few here to entice you and then post more in the comments to provide for lots of raucous debate. I have gotten a lot of feedback like "Why should I fund something that is given away for free?". Is this really the general feeling about free software? Recently, there was an article about Kickstarter being about pre-orders. Is it too abstract for people the pay it forward for the features they would like to see in software that doesn't have a unit price tag? Many people also seem to think the project deliverables shouldn't require the $50,000 funding goal. How much do you think it would cost to have someone develop the deliverables listed?"

An anonymous reader writes: We are supporters of an old-school adventure game Kickstarter that is dealing with "Kickstarter fatigue". The project itself is a sarcastic/comedic, science-fiction adventure, with reknowned and proven talent behind it — now that Kickstarter's adventure game honeymoon period is seemingly over, the big gaming and news sites are not interested in the project, community sites are not interested in front paging articles about the project, and famous twitterers with sci-fi leanings have all but ignored our request for twitter help. Due to the reluctance of the big gaming sites in talking about Kickstarter projects, it is up to the fans to try and get this across the line in the next 8 days — what other avenues or sites can we use to get word about our project to a wider audience, without coming across as spammers?

flyingmonkfish writes: "Remember the old-school Sierra On-Line Space Questseries? Yes, back in the day before live Internet pr0n. With the original IP tied up in a giant Activision-Gordian-Knot, Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe ("The Two Guys from Andromeda"), the creators of SQ, have set up their own indie studio to invent a whole new hilarious universe, new characters, and puzzles; maybe respecting the style of art and comedy for which they are remembered. They sure aren't telling us what they'll do, so don't sue us if it turns out to be a space themed version of Animal Crossing! SpaceVenture is rumoured to lambaste sci-fi franchises, and the team claims that none are safe, including Doctor Who, Stargate, Avatar, and others. One thing is certain, they'll make fun of YOU. They've lined up an all-star voice-acting cast, including Rob Paulsen (off-camera voice on "Funniest Pets and People"), Ellen McLain (cut-scenes on Godzilla: Unleashed), and radio legend Gary Owens (pre-recorded station ID announcer for CHPQ-FM). It's being promoted with a blog, podcasts, videos, live chats,and fan efforts including SQ marathons,comics, and fan videos. Sex tape coming soon. Best of all, as funding milestones are reached the team releases Chrome Web Store exclusive prototypes; somewhat playable concept art demonstrating how l33t their HTML5 sk1lzz are! The Kickstarter project targets everything under the sun — PC/Mac/Linux/iOS/Android, none of them well — for release and includes expensive swag and rewards that can land you in the game itself — for the price of a nice car. So go on and look if you're a diehard fan of adventure games with sci-fi parody — yes, the two of you. Did we mention we're desperate? Funding has bottomed out so we're now down to desperate measures and running on fumes. WE NEED YOUR HELP!"

auhsor writes: It's only taken 20 years for Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe ('The Two Guys from Andromeda'), creators of Space Quest, to settle their differences and reunite for a new game. They have set up their own indie studio to create a new game respecting the style of art and comedy for which they are remembered.

They've lined up a stellar voice-acting cast, including Rob Paulsen (Animaniac Yakko, Pinky, TMNT's Raphael), Ellen McLain (GLaDOS), John Patrick Lowrie (TF2 Sniper) and radio legend Gary Owens. It's being promoted with regular live chats, videos, podcasts and fan efforts including SQ marathons, comics, and fan videos. The Kickstarter project targets PC/Mac/Linux/iOS/Android for release and includes awesome rewards such as a real life buckazoid or a mention in the game.

I think this is a perfect project for a Kickstarter. It's a great way to show that there are still fans of the Adventure Game genre and it allows us to directly interact with the developers. Scott and Mark have been quite hands on in their interaction with the fans which has been great.
With all the other adventure game kickstarters (Double Fine, Jane Jensen, Leasure Suit Larry, Tex Murphy, Rob Swigart's Portal) around 2013 is going to be a great year for adventure games... Well it will be if we can get this funded!

Mr. Jaggers writes: "Remember the old-school Sierra On-Line Space Quest series? With the original IP tied up in a giant Activision-Gordian-Knot, Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe ("The Two Guys from Andromeda"), the creators of SQ, have set up their own indie studio to invent a whole new hilarious universe, new characters, and puzzles; all the while respecting the style of art and comedy for which they are remembered. SpaceVenture is set to lambaste sci-fi franchises (as was done in SQ), and the team claims that none are safe, including Doctor Who, Stargate, Avatar, and others. They've lined up an all-star voice-acting cast, including Rob Paulsen (Animaniac Yakko, Pinky, TMNT's Raphael), Ellen McLain (GLaDOS), and radio legend Gary Owens. It's being promoted with a blog, podcasts, videos,live chats, and fan efforts including SQ marathons,comics, and fan videos. Best of all, as funding milestones are reached the team builds and releases prototypes; living, playable concept art demonstrating the character of the final game! The Kickstarter project targets PC/Mac/Linux/iOS/Android for release and includes awesome rewards that can land you in the game itself. It's definitely worth a look for fans of adventure games and sci-fi parody!"